


You Got A Look In Your Eyes

by orphan_account



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: HQ RarePair Fest, Halloween, M/M, Spirits AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-01
Updated: 2016-11-01
Packaged: 2018-08-28 08:34:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8438686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: They met only six hours before reincarnation, but it was plenty of time to celebrate Halloween, engage in verbal battles, and maybe even fall in love.
  “I got a book on constellations when I was six,” Oikawa said. “And I would try to find them at night, but I never could because there was too much light pollution. It was really sad.” 
  “Maybe in your next life you’ll be an astronomer,” Suga said. He wondered what he and Oikawa were going to be like in the next life. He wondered if they’d cross paths. Maybe they’d gotten soul tethers by now, even though they’d only known each other for a few hours. 
  They could be scientists in their next life, working side by side. Or maybe they’d meet in high school, passing notes in class. Or maybe they’d make eye contact on a passing train, and Suga wondered it they would have enough time to fall in love. He shrugged the thought off.





	

**Author's Note:**

> *spills coffee* *jumps over table* *slides under couch* I MADE IT
> 
> anyway, this is for the hq rarepair fest. happy halloween! *gives out some virtual candy*. if there's anything that the hq rarepair blog has taught me, it's that life's too short not to multi-ship, so here, have a ghosts!oisuga
> 
> title is from the song "avalanche" by walk the moon.

Suga had forgotten how bright the physical world was. The colors seemed too vivid, a whirlwind of reds and golds and browns, and the wind blew airy smells of wet leaves and earth through his lungs. In contrast, the spirit realms seemed muted, a staticy television with the volume turned down. Suga would’ve been content to just sit on this wooden bench, solid and slick underneath his fingertips, for the remaining six hours he had.

He wasn’t sure what he was going to do yet. On Halloween, the spirit and physical worlds intersected, and the ghosts were allowed to slip in among the human revelers and complete any unfinished business they had. The next day, they would be reincarnated. And Suga knew that he would join in the festivities later- all spirits did, it was tradition- but for now, he was tired.

Daichi had asked him if he would be alright. There was a familiar crease between Daichi’s brows, and his mouth was in a worried twist, but Suga had assured him that he would. He’d nodded toward Daichi and Kuroo’s interlocked hands and said, “Wouldn't want to intrude on your night,” adding a non-too-subtle wink for good measure. After that, they’d parted ways.

(What none of them spoke of was as following: Kuroo and Daichi might not be lovers in the next life. When people met in the spirit world, they were given soul tethers, guarantees to cross paths in their reincarnation, but the relationships they had might not be the same. Suga refused to interrupt them on what might be their last day as a couple.)

Suga got up from the bench and looked around. He’d been dropped off two blocks from a busy shopping plaza, and when he felt around in the pocket of his jeans, his hand hit on a wad of paper bills. He counted- fifty thousand yen. He supposed it was the universe’s way of apologizing for Suga’s early death.

Suga repocketed the bills and headed over to the plaza. The buildings were plastered with Halloween decorations, jack-o-lanterns and spider webs adorning the windows. One of the shops was a bakery, and Suga stepped inside and paid two hundred yen for a mochi roll. He bit into it and had to hold back a groan. The pastry’s flavor exploded in his mouth, rich and buttery and delicious, nothing the spirit realms could ever replicate. He took another huge bite, crumbs cascading down the front of his shirt.

“Good, right?” someone asked. Suga spun around. Next to him was a brown-haired boy about his age- _of death_ , his mind supplied grimly- and his hazel eyes were fixed on Suga with an expression of understanding. “I haven’t had one of these in _forever_.” He gestured to the half-eaten milk bread in his hand.

“Sometime during the night I want to eat some mapo tofu,” Suga said. He took a wad of bills from his pocket and stuffed them into the charity donation jar at the counter. “It’ll probably be even spicier than I remembered. I’m Sugawara Koushi, by the way.”

The other boy nodded before reaching over and stealing a bit of Suga’s roll. “Oikawa Tooru. So, Suga-chan-” Suga blinked in response to the immediate nickname, and Oikawa’s eyes crinkled at the sides. “What are you planning on doing tonight?”

“I don’t really have anywhere in mind,” Suga said hesitantly. He knew a lot of other spirits visited their families, but his parents had kicked him out of the house when Suga had told them he was gay, and that same night there had been ambulances and paramedics and a flat-lined heart monitor. Suga’s gut churned, and he forced a smile. “What about you?”

Oikawa grinned and leaned back against one of the tables. “I’m with you, of course.”

“You are?” Suga blurted, then winced because of how rude that sounded. “I mean, of course I don’t mind, what I meant to say is uh-”

“It’d be an honor to hang out with me?” Oikawa asked. “Yeah, of course. You wanna go get costumes? I saw a costume shop a few stores down.”

“Costumes, huh?” Sugawara asked. “You’ve got this all planned out.”

Oikawa pouted. “I was _planning_ on going with my friends Matsukawa and Hanamaki, but then they third wheeled me, which was so _rude_. And I thought about getting a date for tonight, but then I decided I didn’t really want to spend today with someone whose name I don’t even know."

“You had a lot of options, I presume?” Suga asked dryly.

“Yeah, no one can resist my charm,” Oikawa said. “Not even when I’m dead.” He kept a straight face while saying that, and Suga wasn’t sure whether or not to laugh.

They exited the bakery and walked into the chilly autumn air. “What if one of the girls you meet tonight asks you for your phone number? Will you just tell them you’re dead?”

“Please, I used that excuse _last_ Halloween,” Oikawa said airily, and then leaned over and asked, “So, Suga-chan, is there anyone _you’re_ dating right now?” Oikawa’s words were flirtatious, but Suga chose to ignore that because Oikawa could probably read off a grocery list and make it sound like he was seducing someone.

“No, not really. Actually, I also got third-wheeled tonight, except it was more of a self-induced third wheeling. My friends Daichi and Kuroo-”

“Wait, Kuroo? Like, Kuroo Tetsurou?” Oikawa asked. Suga nodded. “Isn’t he the guy that tried to break the wall between the physical and spiritual world so he could ohohoho with his friend one last time?”

Suga giggled. “Yeah, that guy.”

Oikawa looked scandalized. “Suga-chan, we had a mutual acquaintance _all this time_ , and we never met? So not cool!” He draped himself over Suga’s shoulders, and Suga laughingly reached around Oikawa’s waist and gave it a comforting squeeze.

Suga gestured to the nearby building with his free hand. “Oh, hey, we’re here.” The shop windows were brightly lit, hat-sporting mannequins and outrageously flashy costumes on display, and he and Oikawa ducked in and were immediately surrounded by florescent lights and piles of shiny fabric.

“Oh, look at this one, Suga-chan,” Oikawa cooed, holding up a pink ballerina outfit that a five-year-old girl would probably find childish. “Don’t you think it would look fabulous on you?”

“Absolutely,” Suga said. “Want me to try it on?”

Oikawa’s face contorted in horror, and he let the dress fall back on its hanger. “ _Not_ a mental image I needed to see,” he whined.

Suga held his hands up. “Sorry, sorry,” he said, flashing Oikawa an apologetic-yet-cheeky grin. Oikawa hummed and tapped his finger on his chin in a contemplative manner.

“You should be an angel,” Oikawa said finally. “In all seriousness. I’m assuming people have told you that before, though.”

Suga shrugged. “Yeah, I was an angel from ages five to ten until all of the angel costumes became girls’ only. After that, I was a policeman and stuff.”

Oikawa said nothing, just dragged Suga through the stacks, scanning through the jumble of garish colors and flimsy fabric until he muttered “aha” and pulled a package off its hanger. “Here we go, Suga-chan~” he sing-songed, dangling the costume in front of Suga’s face. Suga said nothing, just allowed his eyebrows to rise up to his hairline.

The costume was just a dress that could probably double as a shirt, low-cut bodice glittering with silver sequins. Along with it were silk gloves, a headband with a silver halo, and feathery wings attached to straps. Oikawa laughed at Suga’s expression and said, “Not the dress, although that’d be interesting. Just put on the halo and wings.”

Suga smiled widely. “Oh look, it comes as a _set_ ,” and he tossed Oikawa the matching demon’s costume. He stared at him, a challenge in his eyes, but Oikawa just smiled, took the costume, and walked into the nearby changing room. Suga shrugged and went into the one next to it, closing the curtain and pushing in the lock.

He stared at the dress and winced. Suga was glad he wouldn’t be wearing it- he’d been called pretty several times in his past life, but he definitely couldn’t pull something like this off. He took the halo and pushed it atop his head and slipped the straps of his wings onto his arms. A small perk of being a spirit was that he could change minor things about his appearance, so he adjusted the halo until it looked like it was really floating above his head and made the connecting straps of his wings disappear. He stared at himself in the mirror: an angel in blue jeans stared back. He emerged out of the changing room a minute later.

Oikawa was already outside, wearing his normal civilian clothes with devil horns perched atop his head and a flashy black cloak falling around his feet. “Looks like we had the same idea,” Suga said. His heart pounded in his chest. Why did Oikawa have to look so good?

“Just to let you know, I totally could have pulled that dress off,” Oikawa said. “It’s just too cold outside for that kind of outfit.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Suga said, smiling. They went up to the cashier and rang up their purchases (dresses included), and the cashier’s judgemental expression melted away as Oikawa flirted his way through the entire exchange. As they walked out the door, plastic shopping bags in hand, they encountered an old man in the streets playing the violin on the curb, case opened with a few paper bills in it. Suga smiled and deposited five thousand yen into the case, and the man grinned crookedly and said, “Bless you, angel.”

“Are you just going to hand money out all night?” Oikawa asks. “You’re so nice, Suga-chan.”

Suga shrugged. “What else am I going to do with it?” Oikawa said nothing to that, but the next time they passed someone in the streets, Oikawa took a fistful of bills and shoved it into their jar. And even though Oikawa’s attractiveness had been pulling at Suga ever since they’d met, it was only then that something in Suga allowed itself to flutter.

The sun was setting, and Oikawa’s face looked strangely serious in the amber glow. “Do you have any unfinished business?”

“Besides like, the entire rest of my life? No, not really,” Suga said. “I guess I’m just waiting for reincarnation at this point. You?”

Oikawa bit his lip. “No,” he said. “Well, I wanted to eat milk bread for one last time, but I already finished that. And Iwa-chan will be with me for the next reincarnation, which is all that matters to me.”

“Who’s Iwa-chan?” Suga asked. His voice was tinted with something resembling jealousy. Oikawa’s mouth curled into a smile, and Suga wondered if he’d heard. He stared back unflinchingly.

“Oh, Iwa-chan? Oikawa said lightly. “He’s my best friend. He had unfinished business tonight, though, so I didn’t want to disturb him. But me- not really, I guess.” He looked down at his hands. “I don’t really want to see my parents tonight. They- I don’t think they want to see me.”

Suga frowned. “Don’t doubt yourself, Oikawa. You’re a good person.”

Oikawa looked away, and when he looked back, his face was like a mask. “I know, right? Who wouldn’t want me?” He opened his mouth, eyes frantic with the need to change the subject. “Let’s play a game, Suga-chan!”

“Oh?” Suga said. They’d reached the festival gates, autumn leaves and felt pumpkins curling around plastic vines. “And what do you propose?”  

“We take turns doing things we want,” Oikawa said. “And the other person has to go along with it.”

Suga grinned. “Let’s do it! You go first.”

Oikawa hummed in thought for a minute before pointing to a haunted house nearby and saying, “Come on.” The Haunted House was painted all black, ghosts painted on the cobwebby windows, and it would be creepy if not for the multitude of neon-colored signs stuck all over the ground next to it. They got into line behind everyone else, and Suga took the time to study their surroundings.

Everyone else in the line was a teenager, and Suga could hear the orange-haired boy in front of him tell his friend, “It’s going to be all bwaaah and gwaaah!” before the other boy said, “Shut up, dumbass, it’s all fake.” Suga smiled and wondered where Daichi and Kuroo were right now. He hoped they were having fun.

“Have you ever been in a haunted house before?” Suga asked.

Oikawa groaned. “Most of them weren’t even scary. Iwa-chan’s face is way more terrifying,” he added, and Suga wondered what kind of person Iwa-chan was. Whoever he was, Oikawa had probably sucked up the last reserves of his patience a long time ago. Oikawa was easy to adore, but hard to be polite with.

Suga let Oikawa pull him through the entryway, and Suga inwardly sighed as he realized the place was going to be scary in the stereotypically terrifying way. The place was dark and gloomy, noises emanating through the walls, and there were glowering demons and zombies everywhere with blood on their faces.

At one point, a giant spider descended from the ceiling, and Suga can hear Oikawa make a garbled noise beside him. Suga giggled softly, and Oikawa said, “Oh come on, it’s not _that_ funny,” and absolutely nothing out of the ordinary haunted house experience occurred until one of the skeletons removed his own face and stepped out into the gloom.

There were shrieks of terror from those around Suga, and his own heartbeat spiked up a few hundred notches. And then the skeleton opened his mouth, and Suga could see he wasn’t really a skeleton but a teenage girl, and she grinned at Suga and said, “Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?”

Suga was aware of the splutter of laughter from Oikawa, and he resolved to murder him later (in the politest possible fashion, of course, Suga was nothing if not civilized). “Uh…” Suga spluttered. “Aren’t you supposed to be a skeleton?”

“Nice receive,” he heard Oikawa whisper next to him.

The girl promptly burst into peals of laughter and said, “I told you that I would do it. Aiko, you owe me two thousand yen.”

The skeleton next to her ripped off her mask. “Yeah, yeah, you useless pile of bones, get back into character now.” She turned toward the guests. “Sorry about her. Excuse me while I go die of embarrassment now.”

Oikawa was still laughing by the time they descended the last flight of cobwebby stairs and exited the house. Next to them was the orange and black-haired pair, arguing loudly whether or not the haunted house was scary or not (“You _screamed,_ Kageyama.” “Did not. “Did too!”)

Oikawa slapped Suga on the shoulder and said, “Best haunted house I’ve ever been to. What did you think of it, Suga-chan?”

“I’ve never been hit on by a skeleton before,” Suga said slowly. He thought about making a skeleton-related pun but couldn’t come up with any good ones on the spot. “That pick-up line she used fit the situation, though,” which just sent Oikawa off into another gale of laughter.

By the time Oikawa had stopped wheezing, Suga had managed to snag two caramel apples from a nearby vendor and handed one to Oikawa. They ate sitting out on the curb, watching the flow of people around them and the sporadic burst of fireworks in the sky, and Oikawa turned to him and said, “Your turn, Suga-chan. What do you want to do?”

Suga shrugged. “There’s a parade starting here in thirty minutes. I want to watch that.”

“So boring.”

“What do you mean? You don’t get any joy from watching little children catching candy?” Suga asked. “Oh, wait, nevermind-”

“Mean!” Oikawa cried out. “Do you really have such a low opinion of me already? I can’t believe you. And here I thought you were _nice_.” He shook his head regretfully. “I always make friends with those who don’t appreciate my kindness.”

“Tell me about your friends,” Suga said, picking at a loose strand of his jeans. “What are they like?”

“Well, there’s Iwa-chan, of course. He’s really grumpy and prickly all the time, but he always buys me milk bread, so he’s not that bad. And then there’s Mattsun and Makki, who are the demonic duo. You would fit right in with them, actually. And you’d be the worst of the lot, because you look so kind and sweet, but I alone know the _devious_ , _terrible_ side of your personality.”

“Actually, I’m pretty sure Daichi and Kuroo figured it out a while back, actually,” Suga said. “So there were those weeks when they were silently pining away for each other-”

“Are you sure you’re not talking about Mattsun and Makki right now? They better be making out right now. If they’re not, I’ll never forgive them for abandoning me tonight. Wait, tell me the rest of your story, though.”

Suga blushed. “And I may have well. Meddled a bit. Which involved me yelling _get your acts together already_ before smashing their heads together. Daichi got a nosebleed.”

Oikawa stared at him in unabashed delight. “You’re _awful_. Take that halo off and give it to me. You just lost your angel privileges.”

“Tragedy,” Suga said. Oikawa gently lifted Suga’s halo off his head and replaced it with his devil horns. His fingers brushed Suga’s hair, and a warm feeling spread from the place where Oikawa had touched his skin. Even though Suga tried to keep his face neutral, he could feel a blush coloring his cheeks.

Oikawa finished his candy apple, giving the stick a last lick before twirling it around with his fingers. “Ooh, check this out! The stick has a joke on it!”

Suga took the stick from Oikawa and looked at it. “How do you throw a space party?” he read, and then turned it over. “You planet.” Suga groaned and clutched at his shirt. “Ouch.”

Oikawa looked scandalized. “That is some A-class humor right there, Suga-chan!”

“Don’t you mean five-star?” Suga teased, and Oikawa shoved him and screamed, “Comet me bro.” Suga just laughed harder and said, “Personal _space_ ,” and then the two of them blasted off in an intergalactic pun war. After about five comments from each of them, Oikawa finally gave up and said, “You’re a freaking Big Dipper, you know that?”

“What does that even mean?”

Oikawa raked a hand through his hair. “I’ve been in love with space since I was five, this is _my_ territory. I can’t believe you beat me,” he moaned. He leaned back on his palms, staring at the skies. “But don’t think this was an… Ursa Major defeat.”

Suga laughed. “Okay, you can have that one. I know nothing about space, anyway.”

“I got a book on constellations when I was six,” Oikawa said. “And I would try to find them at night, but I never could because there was too much light pollution. It was really sad.”

“Maybe in your next life you’ll be an astronomer,” Suga said. He wondered what he and Oikawa were going to be like in the next life. He wondered if they’d cross paths. Maybe they’d gotten soul tethers by now, even though they’d only known each other for a few hours.

They could be scientists in their next life, working side by side. Or maybe they’d meet in high school, passing notes in class. Or maybe they’d make eye contact on a passing train, and Suga wondered it they would have enough time to fall in love. He shrugged the thought off.

Oikawa was talking. “And you’ll be a leader of a charity organization, and we’ll have some kind of deep-space exploration project dedicated to your cause, and then we can both show up on TV-”

“-And it’ll be broadcasted across Japan-”

“-And all of your news reporters will ask me questions instead. Sorry, Suga-chan, but it’s _inevitable_ -”

“-And then when they ask you about the constellations you’ll have to say you know nothing about them because of all of the light pollution-”

“-And we can fend off my paparazzi together,” Oikawa finished, and Suga punched him and said, “Fend off your _own_ paparazzi, Oikawa.” Oikawa stuck his tongue out at him. But Suga was smiling, because Oikawa had talked of them _together_ , connecting their dots as easily as tracing the lines of a paper constellation.

The parade was in action in front of them, sequined floats and hoards of costumes marching down the street, and a girl dressed as a vampire was throwing candies that looked like blood at the spectators. Suga caught one and put it in his mouth- licorice. Next to him, Oikawa unwrapped a lollipop, the stick bobbing up and down from his lips.

They were content to just watch the scene- besides, it was too chaotic to continue their conversation, anyway, until Oikawa screamed.

“What?” Suga shouted. “Are you okay? Did you get hurt? Are you bleeding? Do we need to get you to the infirmary, oh god is there an infirmary for spirits, I can’t believe you got hurt-”

“Clowns,” Oikawa said shakily, gesturing to the band of red-blue-white figures on the street. Next to Oikawa, a child promptly began to wail. Suga sighed, feeling silly.

“Let’s get out of here, then.”

They slipped out of the crowd, weaving their way through the people swathed in masks and fabric. Ahead of Suga, a large clock hung from one of the billboards, reading 9:40. Another two hours and twenty minutes until reincarnation. It was funny, because he’d been so excited for midnight to come before, but now he kind of wished he could stop the clock. Oikawa had calmed down next to him and had a vaguely embarrassed look on his face.

“Your turn,” Suga said. “What do you want to do?”

Oikawa pointed to the giant carnival ride a few meters away from them. “Let’s go on that,” he declared. “When I was six, I nearly fell off because my seat wasn’t tightened properly, and I never went on a rollercoaster after that. But I’m a spirit, so there’s nothing to lose.”

“I’m sorry. That must have been terrifying,” Suga said.

Oikawa shrugged. “Nah, it was fine. I got candy for an entire week because of it. Anyway, let’s go!” He tugged Suga along to where the rollercoaster hung, a giant claw that spun around while swinging back and forth. Shrieks echoed through the night air.

Suga laughed. “I’m going to die.”

“You’re already dead,” Oikawa said, delighted with himself. “I’ve been waiting all night for you to slip up so I could use that.” And they just stood in line and laughed, arms around their stomachs and tears leaking from their eyes. And when one of them would calm down, they would just look at each other and crack up all over again. By the time they were down, Suga’s cheeks ached and his stomach felt like it was going to fall off. “Thanks, Oikawa,” he said suddenly.

“For what?”

“Just...being here, I guess,” Suga said slowly, words thick on his tongue. He wondered if Oikawa was going to make a joke, say something about gracing the room with his presence. Oikawa seemed to thinking along those same lines, his usual persona manufacturing a witty quip in a second, but then he said, “You, too.”

“It makes things easier,” Suga said. “I mean, um. Just. Sorry. It’s been a fun night, that’s all.”

“Yeah,” Oikawa agreed. But then his dazzling smile was back, and he threw up a peace sign and said, “Don’t make it sound like a good-bye, Suga-chan! I’ll definitely see you in the next life. After all-” he reached over and pretended to tug on a string between their chests “-we’ve got soul tethers, right?”

The pre-ride butterflies in Suga’s stomach erupted into a whirlwind. Oikawa was smiling, eyes crinkled up, but it seemed like he wanted Suga to say something. _He wanted confirmation._ “Yeah,” Suga said. “Yeah, we do.” His mouth felt dry.

“Alright,” the announcer yelled. “Next riders, come take your spots.” Suga and Oikawa handed over four hundred yen each, took off their costume accessories, and strapped themselves into the menacing claw. Suga’s feet hung several centimeters off the ground. Oikawa was checking his strap again and again, teeth worrying his lower lip.

“Are you scared?” Suga asked, and Oikawa’s pale face gave him all the confirmation he needed. “You’ll be fine.” He reached over and squeezed Oikawa’s hand, and even though he meant to retract it, the ride started up. Oikawa gasped and clenched Suga’s hand, palms slick with sweat.

“Oh geez,” Suga stuttered, feeling the ride speed up and rotate. His stomach swooped, and he squeezed his eyes shut. Oikawa had his hand in a death grip. Suga could feel his circulation being cut off.

The rollercoaster accelerated even more, wind whistling through Suga’s hair, and the claw reached its highest point, spun around, and promptly whipped them in the other directions. Tears flew from Suga’s eyes. Around him, people were screaming, and Suga’s mouth was open, although he couldn’t tell if his voice was contributing to the inhuman noise or not. Next to him, Oikawa was making breathless noises, the sound echoing through Suga’s ears.

It felt like forever. It felt like nothing. Suga’s hands were shaking when the ride finally ended, and he took forever trying to unbuckle his seatbelt before realizing he was still holding Oikawa’s hand. He awkwardly shook himself out of the others’ grasp, his fingers spotted purple and white, and then he picked up his halo and wings and walked off the platform with unsteady legs.

Oikawa glanced over. “That was so much scarier than I remembered.”

“It was your idea.”

“That doesn’t mean it was a good one!” Oikawa shot back, stumbling over his legs. “Even I can’t be perfect all the time.”

“Your hair’s a mess,” Suga said, amused.

Oikawa squawked and reached up to fix it. His face was pale and flushed and sweaty all at the same time, and something that wasn’t just post-rollercoaster vertigo burned through Suga’s veins. “Your hair’s not much better,” Oikawa said, and Suga rolled his eyes.

“I don’t think anyone’s teased me this much in all my other lifetimes combined,” he said.

“I’m honored. Do I get a trophy?”

“No.”

“So sad,” Oikawa sighed. Then, “Alright, your turn. What do you want to do now?”

Suga thought for a moment, thought of all the wishes that he had and then tried to pick out the simplest request he could. “Like I said at the beginning- I want to go eat mapo tofu for one last time. Extra spicy.” Oikawa muttered something under his breath that sounded like _why do all my friends like tofu_ before pulling out a phone from his pocket and typing something in.

“Where’d you get the phone? Did you buy it today?” Suga asked curiously.

“Have you been living under a rock your entire death, Suga-chan? Android just expanded their franchise into the spirit world. It opened, like, what, a month ago? It has the actual Flappy Bird and all that good stuff.” He clicked on something and flashed the phone in Suga’s face. “Here we are. The nearest open restaurant is about three blocks away.”

They started off. It was eerily dark, their faces barely silhouettes in the moonlight, and maybe that was why Oikawa said what he did. “I envy those who are alive.”

“Me too,” Suga admitted. “They don’t know how lucky they are.”

“Were you ever in love with anyone when you were alive?” Oikawa asked. Suga felt like he was hurtling off the edge of a precipice, every nerve in his body on fire. “I had a girlfriend when I died, but I don’t even remember her name.”

Suga shook his head. “Didn’t really have time for any of that stuff,” he said. “And um… I didn’t really know anyone who, well… swung my way.”

“Ah,” Oikawa said flatly. “They’re stupid, then. Anyone would be lucky to have you.”

“Do you mind doing this?” Suga asked, and Oikawa’s brow lifted up in the shape of a question mark. “I mean, coming to a restaurant to eat tofu with me. Do you have anything else that I’m keeping you from doing, or is there someplace you’d rather be-” he was babbling. Words were flying out of his mouth, and he couldn’t make them stop.

Oikawa cut him off. “Do you see me leaving? Besides, I’ve got an entire lifetime after this one to do whatever, and I just met you a few hours ago, so we have to make up for all that lost time when we could’ve been talking.”

Suga smiled gratefully. “Thanks.”

“You know,” Oikawa said, “I told you about my embarrassing space dream. You should really tell me about _your_ past life. Who were you, anyway?”

Suga looked down at his hands. _How do I answer?_ “I’m just excited for the new lifetime,” he said.

Oikawa nodded, a dip of his chin. “Perhaps we’ll get to be who we are then,” he said softly. Suga didn’t say anything, mind full of the implications from his statement, and they reached the doors of the restaurant a few minutes later. Suga tried to hold the door open for Oikawa, who in turn tried to hold it for Suga, and eventually they agreed to just go in at the same time.

It was dark inside, a mixture of club and bar and grill, tables and stools centered around a gyrating fluorescent dance floor. Oikawa went up to the counter and said, “One mapo tofu and one ramen, please,” and then he took out a wad of bills from his pocket and said, “Keep the change.”

The lady behind the counter flushed bright red. “Thank you,” she mumbled. “Are you a spirit? You’re very kind.”

Oikawa peace-signed, and Suga rolled his eyes and shook his head. Their orders arrived in half the others’ time, and they ate standing up because the entire place was packed. They were jammed in a corner near the wall, and it was impossible to make conversation because the screams of the crowd drowned out anything anyone wanted to say.

“THIS IS GREAT,” Suga shouted. His words got lost in the sea of noise, and he felt emboldened enough to add, “I’M SO GLAD I MET YOU, OIKAWA TOORU!”

Oikawa’s look of surprise melted into something soft and gold. “Let’s dance,” he mouthed at Suga, tugging his arm so that they could join in the fray. The music was loud, vibrating through Suga’s bones and thrumming to the beat of his heart. They were jam-packed, pressed close together, and he could only grin helplessly as he tried to move from left to right, nearly falling over himself in the process.

“You’re terrible,” Oikawa giggled. “I wish I could take a video.”

“You’re not faring much better,” Suga groused. It wasn’t true, and Oikawa knew it. His movements were lithe, as if the melody had manifested itself in the movement of his body.

The current song ended and a throwback from five years ago began to play. It was the kind of song everybody knew, that the radio didn’t play often but when it did, you threw your hands up and screamed along to the lyrics. Oikawa was jumping up and down, enthusiastically lip-syncing the words. He wasn’t focused on what he looked like. His dancing was ridiculous and strange, and he was beautiful.

Suga felt like he was made of air. He felt like his human form had disappeared and it was just his soul, tethered to Oikawa’s, dancing along to the beat. He was falling so, so hard, even though he was upright, and there was nothing but music and sound and darkness and he wanted it to last forever.

They staggered out into the cool night air countless songs later, sweaty and flushed. Oikawa sat down heavily on the curb and Suga followed suit, bracing his hands against the cold sidewalk. Oikawa flopped down onto his back and turned his face forty-five degrees so that he could look Suga in the eye.

Oikawa smiled. “Alright. Your turn. What do you want to do now?”

“Isn’t it your turn?”

“Yeah, but I made you dance,” Oikawa said. “That took up way too long. Sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Suga told him firmly. He stared up at the clock, ten minutes until midnight, and something desperate and jagged crashed over him. He couldn’t waste those last few minutes on a cheap carnival game or a spun of cotton candy. He needed to make them count, because they were going to reborn anyway, and what was he going to do if not this-

“I want to kiss you,” he said. Oikawa got up and stared at him, brown eyes boring into his. The silence lasted a long second.

“So do it.”

Suga hesitantly placed his hands on either side of Oikawa’s face and leaned in. Their mouths brushed together, Oikawa’s mouth closed and closed, and then his lips parted and the kiss eased into something warm and soft. The kiss was a gift, like a spool of silk or a spill of ink, like Oikawa was trying to give Suga a present to hold onto for another lifetime.

They broke apart. Oikawa smiled at him and said, “My turn,” and pressed their mouths together again. Their lips slid together, and Suga could feel the seconds counting down inside of him, three, two, one. The bell signaling midnight rang. Suga looked down and saw his flesh slowly turn silver and transparent, fading away into the wind.

Next to him, Oikawa was doing the same. Disappearing.

Suga’s eyes opened wide, desperate, because there must have been something they could have done tonight that Suga didn’t do, there must have been a minute or second wasted in there and Suga wanted a redo. But then Oikawa smiled at him, a thank-you for tonight, and Suga’s soul lashed tight and flew free.

_See you in the next life._

\---

Suga stood in his Karasuno volleyball jersey, admonishing Nishinoya for yet another one of his _rolling thunders_. Suga’s teammates burned with fire, and Daichi clapped him on the shoulder and said, “Let’s fly!”

On the opposite side of the court was Aoba Johsai, and with them Oikawa Tooru, legendary setter with the lethal serves. His eyes locked with Suga’s, and Suga’s chest thrummed- _competition._ _The enemy._

And a quieter voice, not to be acknowledged for a long, long time- _there you are._


End file.
